socks

Bathroom Makeover

I've been wanting to redo my bathroom for a long time.  Two big problems with the way it was; the ugly wallpaper and not enough storage.  Sometime this past spring, I got the idea for what I wanted to do and stewed on it for awhile.  We actually started in July, but just got all the finishing touches done this week (the bathroom has been useable much longer).

 This is what it looked like to start with.

Very drab and very cluttered.  Plus, there were places that the wallpaper was falling off the wall.

This is a close up of the wallpaper.  Sometime in the 90's (I think), textured wallpaper became popular.  Personally, I never saw the appeal.  All of the ones I ever saw were these same light colors.  One of it's selling points was that you could paint over it.  Then you'd still have the texture but any color you wanted.  No thank you.

Well, despite the fact that the wallpaper was falling of the wall in some places by itself, it did not want to come off.  We had the same kind of wallpaper in the hallway and took that down years ago.  In the hall, it came down easily so I assumed the bathroom would be ready to paint the first day.  Well, I was wrong.  I don't know if it was because of the moist environment or what, but the outer layer of the wallpaper came off fine, but the actual backing where the glue was did not want to come off. Which might not of been so bad, except in some places it did and in others it didn't.  We ended up having to sand the wall.  No fun.  During this process it became apparent that the last time the house was remodeled, they had cut corners with the sheet rock in the bathroom knowing that they were going to wallpaper it.  So, though I had not origianally intended to do so, I had to texture the walls.  I used a method involving tissue paper and starch that my mom had done a few years ago that I really liked.

My vision for the bathroom sounded crazy to Frank and my mom (the only ones I think I told what I was doing).  It involved buying old drawers and hanging them on the wall.  It was one of those things that I wasn't sure if the vision I saw in my head was really what was goint to happen in real life.  But it came out just like I pictured it and I love it.  The best part; there's almost nothing on my bathroom counter anymore.



Grass Sledding

   I don't remember exactly how this subject came up.  I know it was sometime this winter when we had snow.  Probably the kids were gripping that we don't get enough days to sled in Oklahoma.  Anyways, I was telling them tha when I was a kid, we used to go grass sledding.  I'm not sure how that started either, and my sisters might even be too young to rebember since I only remember doing it when we lived in Germany and they were pretty young then.  My dad was in the military and we lived in an apartmen building that sat on top of the best sledding hill in the area.  In the spring and summer there were always a lot of people moving and the dumpsters were always full of cardboard boxes that had been flattened.  So we would take those flattened boxes and use them as sleds and go sledding down the hill.  It kept us entertained for hours.
   So, ever since I told the kids about this they have been begging to go.  But it works best when the grass is green, which has only happened recently.  Frank took them yesterday while I was scrapbooking with friends.  They didn't actually use cardboard since our sleds are those plastic saucers and work just as well (when I was a kid ours was one of those wooden ones with runners and those do not work for grass sledding).

redneck pool

Friday night our air conditioner broke.  Frank thinks he can fix it, but the part had to be ordered and won't be here until tomorrow.  So, we've been really hot the last several days.  Sunday, I was getting a little worried about our miniature dachsund.  He was panting and breathing heavy most of the time.  I was telling Frank I wished we still had a wading pool.  However, it being Sunday, and the fact that we're going to have to spend so much on the air conditioner, I didn't want to go buy one.  So, Frank was standing in the shed looking around and comes out with a tarp and proceeds to build a "pool" in the bottom section of our playfort.  It's surrounded by 2x4's and we have thought before of turning it into a sandbox.  It created a wading pool about 3 inches deep, which the dogs, along with us have been enjoying.

The kids relaxing in the pool. 

And no, they don't have beers, it's IBC root beer.

kids quilt camp

This week Shianne went to a kids quilt camp at one of the local quilt shops.  She kind of debated for awhile whether or not she wanted to take it, and the first day when I dropped her off I could tell she was a little nervous and scared.  But, she had a great time and has talked about it almost constantly this week.  She did such an awesome job and has a completely finished quilt.  The pieces were already cut for them out of lots of random fabrics, so that is one part they didn't learn to do (though she will if she goes to the next level camp next summer).  The first two days they worked on sewing the blocks together into rows.  Wednesday they sewed the rows together to complete the top and chose what fabric they wanted for the back.  Shianne chose a black and white print, understanding that a neutral color was a great choice for a quilt with so many colors.  Wednesday evening, the instructors basted together all the students' quilt tops, batting, and backing.  Thursday the kids did the quilting (the stitching that holds all the layers together) using the sewing machine.  Then today, they sewed the binding, which finishes the edges.  Shianne got done so early today, that she used a bunch of scraps that were left over to design and make a miniature quilt for our puppy.  She got the top to it completely done and we have basted the layers together so she can finish it tomorrow.  I am so proud of her.
One really cool thing about Shianne's quilt is the back.  It's black with white circles.  Once the whole thing was together, she was holding it up and noticed that the colors from the front shine through the white circles and make them look like glow bracelets.  It's really neat.

Williams quilt.  We have a fleece blanket that his breeders gave us that he'd had since he was born.  We decided to turn it into the back of the quilt.

talking funny

So, not only can I only barely whisper because of the botox, some things I can't say right at all.  Some sounds I can't make at all.  When I try, no sound comes out at all for a little while, which also usually cuts off several more letters of whatever word I'm trying to say.  For instance, n's are really hard.  If I try to say "nerd", it comes out "rd".  Other sounds come out wrong.  This really became a problem yesterday when I was trying to help Dylan read.  Every day, he brings home a short book from school that he has to read.  So, yesterday, I told him he had to read his book before he could go out and play.  The problem was, I was the only one home.  We got to the last page and one of the words was "at".  Now, normally he knows that word fine, but yesterday he just couldn't remember it and couldn't figure out how to sound it out.  However, when I try to say that word right now, it comes out "hat".  It took us a good two minutes to finish that page (which only had one sentence).  He was getting so frustrated because he wanted to go out and play.  I was laughing so hard at my inability to say "at", that it was making it even worse.

breathing update #2

    So, the botox started to kick in Saturday night and by Sunday morning it had fully kicked in.  I can breath quite a bit better.  Before, I could only walk at a snail's pace without being in danger of passing out.  Now, I can walk at a normal pace without any problems and do other light acitivities.  I don't think I could go workout or anything that strenuous.  My vocal chords are still closing together if I breathe too deeply too quickly, but not the rest of the time.  I can finally get a deep breathe so long as I do it slowly.
   The downsides:  I can barely even whisper, and if I try to talk too much, I can't even do that.  I had to buy a wireless keyboard for school so I can type what I need to say to the kids onto the smart board.  I can't cough.  When I try, I sound like I've been smoking all my life and I can't quite.  I can hardly drink anything without choking, and therefore going into a coughing fit.
   I'm hoping that these drawbacks will subside a little, but that I will still be able to breathe ok, but we'll just have to wait and see.